Spongecola

Spongecola is a popular pinoy rock band, composed of 4 talented members. It was formed in year 2002. Ysmael “Yael” Y. Yuzon is the lead vocalist at the same time handles the rhythm guitar. Reynaldo “Gosh” R. Dilay is the bass guitarist and the back-up vocalist. Erwin “Armo” N. Armovit is the lead guitarist and Christopher “Chris” L. Cantada is also with back-up vocals and operates the drums.

Yael Yuzon met Gosh Dilay in Ateneo High School’s theatre guild, Teatro Baguntao. Yael was the front man of a band White Chapel yet he decided to build his own band together with Gosh. They called their band Sponge
after R.S. Surtee’s Mr. Sponge’s Sporting Tour and won many
competitions thus increasing their popularity not just in their schools
but also in other campuses. Some members were replaced by Chris Cantadaand Armo Armovit.
Though, they heard about Detroit grunge band using Sponge as their
name, they still preserved their name because people get used to it.
They just add Cola for easy remembrance. On 2002, Spongecola was officially introduced into public.

On 2003, they came up with the self-titled EP(Extensive Play) containing 5 original songs: Lunes, A Tear, Saturn, Cigarette and Jeepney.
Lunes, written by Gosh starts with bossa nova-esque beat and shifted
suddenly to heavy rock. Jeepney, their second single was written by a
classmate reminiscing young love during simpler times. Yael’s vocal
range manifests his ability to shift from mellow to screamo. Through
this EP, Spongecola received vast airplays from several local pop and rock radio stations.

On 2004, Sony Music Philippines made a contract signing with Spongecola and released its first full-length album named Palabas. Palabas is based on the individual indifferences of each member. Gosh was used on classic OPM especially from Basil Valdes and Martin Nievera; Armo loves heavy metal and rock edge having Deftones, Tool and A Perfect Circle as his influences; Chris likes pop-rock bands from Beatles and Athenaem and Yael on all fields of music from novelty songs to bubblegum-pop. They acknowledge that Pinoy iconic Rock band, The Eraserheads influenced them that much.

Spongecola uses alternative elements such as samisen (a Japanese guitar), striking of amplifiers, cellphone ring tones and even the rain that are usually ignored in rock bands. Closure, their final track features faint sound of door shutting before transposing to a melancholic acoustic number.

Lunes and KLSP achieved recognition during 2004 and being included in most radio stations’ charts. In the beginning of 2005, Jeepney gained fame together with their original version of Crazy For You. Due to the constant demand of Pinoy Rock in 2005, Spongecola became even more popular with their song Gemini and especially their alternative rock song, Una.

On September 2006, they recorded their second album entitled Transit just after their graduation in college under Universal Records. The album reached its gold status after less than three months of its release. The lead single Bitiwenjoyed its massive radio airplays. Bitiw became the the theme song of ABS-CBN’s Pedro Penduko. It is also the number 2 in MYX’s Chart 2006 year ender countdown.

Two tribute albums were contributed by Spongecola, Pare Ko by Eraserheads on Ultraelectromagneticjam and Nakapagtataka by Apo Hiking Society on Kami Napo muna. Nakapagtataka ranked number 1 in MYX Chart and enjoyed massive radio airplay.

Their second single, Tuliro
was released in the early quarter of 2007 and topped as number 1 in MYX
Hit Charts. They were contracted again by ABS-CBN to generate theme
song for the new season of Pedro Penduko, Pedro Penduko at ang mga
Engkantao. The theme song was entitled Tuloy Pa Rin. In their YouTube account, they stated to release music video for Movie, their third single.

On August 1, 2007, the music video for Movie was released and premiered in MYX and currently ranked number 1 in the Top Ten, 2 weeks after its disclosure. Saan Na Nga Ba’ng Barkada by Apo was covered again by Spongecola for the album, Kami nAPO Muna ULIT.